What's in your glass tonight?

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Thanks Fred, will keep this in mind. I think there will be around 6 of us and will ask if they have any plans or not, would be nice meeting up with you quickly.
Is the Fairgrounds a bar or something?

It's an outdoor venue right outside the center field gate with food and drinks, corn hole and a band after the game.
 
Last nights wine was one for the memory books. 2006 CC Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This was one of the best wines I have ever had. Perfectly balanced even after 10 years of resting in the cellar. Had quite a few later versions of this wine that were nowhere near as good. You did not want this bottle or last glass to ever be finished. This was made by Ray Einberger and team that won WS Wine of the year in 2005 for the same wine. If that wine is even half as close as the 2006 was in quality I can see why they chose it. I have a 2005 as well but holding on to that one still.
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Sometimes I wonder about how I label my wines in the basement. I put a number on the bottle with tape which denotes the batch number. When I give away a wine, I dress it up with a nice cap and a label. After a while I confuse numbers and today was a perfect example. I had a few tasters of #32 in my fridge (not too sure why I had three of them, but then not asking is usually a safer route to take). I thought it was a brunello kit wine I had bottled earlier in the Spring. So after my last beer, I popped open a bottle that had a wine saver cap on it, and since it was in the fridge proceeded to warm it up in my hands after it sat for about 30 minutes beside me on my computer table. When I sipped it, it was a very good wine, just didn't have the body I expected. Here, after consulting my notes, it was a 4/2016 Pinot Noir from a Chilean juice bucket with added grapes. Kinda made sense why the body wasn't what I was expecting.

Too make my long story short, I like the fact that sometimes I don't know exactly what I'm drinking, take a sip or two, then grab my notes to see what I just tasted. It's amazing how our stored up thoughts about a certain (in this case, home made) wine can skew our perception of what we are actually testing/tasting. Not necessarily a blind tasting, but it was nice to know, after a few beers, I was able to at least perceive the difference between a brunello and a pinot noir. I'm making some progresss, very slowly, I think.
 
Sometimes I wonder about how I label my wines in the basement. I put a number on the bottle with tape which denotes the batch number. When I give away a wine, I dress it up with a nice cap and a label. After a while I confuse numbers and today was a perfect example. I had a few tasters of #32 in my fridge (not too sure why I had three of them, but then not asking is usually a safer route to take). I thought it was a brunello kit wine I had bottled earlier in the Spring. So after my last beer, I popped open a bottle that had a wine saver cap on it, and since it was in the fridge proceeded to warm it up in my hands after it sat for about 30 minutes beside me on my computer table. When I sipped it, it was a very good wine, just didn't have the body I expected. Here, after consulting my notes, it was a 4/2016 Pinot Noir from a Chilean juice bucket with added grapes. Kinda made sense why the body wasn't what I was expecting.

Too make my long story short, I like the fact that sometimes I don't know exactly what I'm drinking, take a sip or two, then grab my notes to see what I just tasted. It's amazing how our stored up thoughts about a certain (in this case, home made) wine can skew our perception of what we are actually testing/tasting. Not necessarily a blind tasting, but it was nice to know, after a few beers, I was able to at least perceive the difference between a brunello and a pinot noir. I'm making some progresss, very slowly, I think.

It’s also good to surprise others as well. I had some folks over a couple of weeks ago and popped open a bottle of my ‘16 Koch Cab, aerated it into a decanter, and poured everyone a glass without making any mention of what it was. It’s nicely labeled and capsuled, looks like something you’d buy in a store. As the glasses emptied, my buddy said, “Wow, that was a really good bottle, let’s drink one of the ones you made and see how it compares”. I can’t tell you how good that made me feel, but it felt even better when I handed him the empty bottle to examine while I went to fetch another.
 
All the talk of Viognier in the "Winemaking from Grapes" forum had me craving. So it is my 2016 Viognier in my glass tonight.
 
Had the last bottle of the massive batch (5 bottles total) of my experimental "bourbon barrel" Zin Blush. I detected some underlying spiciness, but I would not have recognized it as bourbon if the fancy label didn't tell me it was in there. It was decent, but nothing to brag about. However, any glass consumed on the porch on a Sunday afternoon is a good thing.

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This evening I'll be enjoying a Crimson Cabernet, from the vineyard/winery that was the first ever to commercially bottle wine from this grape back in the fall of 2011. For those who may not be familiar with it, Crimson Cabernet is a hybrid cross between Norton and Cabernet Sauvignon, featuring the best characteristics of both varieties.

 
This evening I'll be enjoying a Crimson Cabernet, from the vineyard/winery that was the first ever to commercially bottle wine from this grape back in the fall of 2011. For those who may not be familiar with it, Crimson Cabernet is a hybrid cross between Norton and Cabernet Sauvignon, featuring the best characteristics of both varieties.


Sounds interesting, please let us know what you think.
 
CC Showcase Yakima Syrah that I started on 1/5/14. It never really came around, but is OK now. 3 bottles remaining.
 
Sounds interesting, please let us know what you think.

The Crimson Cabernet is quite good. It's got the body and tannin backbone of the Cabernet, along with the black currant fruitiness of the Norton.

From everything I've read it's quite cold hardy (it's survived -18F winter temps so far) and disease resistant.
 
I am definitely seeing a pattern here.......... LOL

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